Afternoon Drive with Xolani Gwala

A more practical approach is important in helping people from diverse social and educational backgrounds to be financially literate.

This is according to Dr Elizabeth Nanziri from the University of Cape Town (UCT)'s School of Economics, who researched the role of financial literacy in people's use and understanding of financial services.

The fact that somebody is poor, below the average income, it doesn't make that person financially illiterate

— Dr Elizabeth Nanziri

Speaking on #NightTalk's Money Matters feature, Dr Nanziri says that financial services which are offered and communicated in a layman's language could improve people's access and knowledge of financial concepts and benefits which exist in the country.

Individuals that are under the age of 30, these are culprits of people who are not financially literate overall

— Dr Elizabeth Nanziri

Dr Nanziri says that although people who received a formal education until matric tend to have knowledge of financial concepts, the transferring of this knowledge into practice has not been good.

She says that people's practical understanding of financial literacy is gathered by their experiences of seeing how people they are closely associated to, like their parents, behave with their finances.

What our parents have versus us, we have the knowledge, they have the experience

— Dr Elizabeth Nanziri

Listen to the conversation below:

NightTalkers on Twitter also engaged on how they became financially literate...